


To Give to the Sea

by jeien



Category: Sound Horizon
Genre: M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 07:17:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6972517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeien/pseuds/jeien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elef tells Tettere of many things about his travels—but the sea was always one he loved to speak of best.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Give to the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Written to celebrate my five-year "marriage anniversary" with Kizu. #5yearsandstillexcited lol. 
> 
> This is with my ever-favored headcanon that after Elef loses against his battle with Moira, she grants him immortality so that he may never die and reunite with his loved ones in Hades. Thus, he just kind of hangs around as time passes.

He continued to roam the earth—left his suffering with the dirt, his ambitions with the wind, his old life with the trees, and his memories with the sea. Nature took the burdens of his past self from him and left him strangely light of heart, despite bearing the punishment that came from defying the goddess. Each step he took in his now-immortal life was a step away from the days of battles for honor, of civilizations erected and fallen, of golden ages. Away from names like Amethystos, Nechros, Hellenes. He did not even want the name Elefseus. Even if he had been a prince by blood, he refused to continue living with a name meant for princes or heroes—so he discarded the unnecessary part and only took Elef with him. Elef, the traveler. Elef, the foreigner. Elef, the strange man whose customs and lifestyle were borderline barbaric.

“I don’t think so. I think you’re an interesting fellow.”

He didn’t know what year it was when he chanced upon the strange prince of the northern lands. His name was difficult and long, the typical convention for those of high rank, so he gave him a simpler title to call him by: Tettere. Elef didn’t like him very much. He was deception, privilege, capriciousness made flesh. But he gave Elef shelter—opening his gates to him on a whim to let his exoticism breathe some life into the avant-garde conventions of his castle—and for that, at the very least, Elef was mildly grateful. He kept his needs simple, his lodgings spare, and, even in the gaudy environment of dual-tongued nobles and their lofty sense of superiority, lived as if he were not the esteemed guest of the prince. Tettere liked that, unfortunately, and used it as an excuse to drape over him like the heavy summer air.

“Come, Elef,” Tettere said one day as they rested in the shade of his gardens, “won’t you tell me more about your travels?”

Elef told him of the mountain ranges and the lush plains and the deserts. The times when he worked as a laborer, a sell-sword, a sailor, a merchant, even a farmer for a brief period. He did not make a good farmer. _Which job did you do best?_ A sell-sword. _Which one did you like best?_ A sailor. He took the hint and began to lay bare his adventures out on the ocean: his travels from island to island, his encounter with pirates, the time he had commandeered an enemy vessel. Tettere hummed a pleased note after all that and said, “Tell me about the sea.” And he told him how the waters glimmered like jewels on a cloudless day, how it blazed like fire during the sunset. How the bow cuts through the roaring waves like a dance. He told him how the occasional sweet breeze amongst the stinging of salty air combs through one’s hair like a gentle caress from the sea, wishing for safe ventures.

“You’re quite fond of it, aren’t you?”

Elef didn’t look at him when he replied, “It holds my memories—both the happiest and the most painful. It’s become a part of me.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Hm?”

“Let’s go to the sea,” Tettere said, getting up. Elef didn’t object. It would have been too much work to try and protest, anyway. The guards and staff know by now, having stayed under the prince’s roof for several months, that he was more than competent enough to protect the prince should the need arise. They saddled their horses and sped off to the coast.

 

 

They arrived in town by sunfall and found an inn that would take them for the night. They left their horses to the innkeeper’s stable hand and made the rest of their trip on foot. Elef glanced around, seeing images from his past travels overlapping against the one he walked through. The layers of a past continuously being left behind. The town had also been like this, during the day, when he had still been searching for—

“We’ve made it!”

He didn’t even notice until his ears audibly picked up the soft crunch of sand beneath their feet. This was no Paradeisos, but Elef felt home. He knelt down and unstrapped his sandals.

“What are you doing?” Tettere asked. Elef didn’t answer and stepped onto the sand with bare feet, feeling the grain settle in the nooks between his toes. The sun’s warmth was just barely there, but his skin soaked up what was left greedily. He left his sandals where they were and made his way to the water. Tettere was left not knowing what to do. “At least wait for me to take off my shoes if that’s how it’s done!”

Elef didn’t wait. The tides licked at his feet and his body shuddered at the sharp chill. He dared to wade further in until he was knee deep—and for the first time, he dared to gaze upon his reflection in the water.

Misia did not stare back at him. Not like it used to when he had been wracked with the guilt of letting her die, with the notion that _if he had just been a little faster_ , the shame of not being able to even bury her properly. He looked at the reflection and saw Elef. And shortly after, he saw Tettere’s reflection next to his.

“You know, you really should listen when someone tells you to wait,” Tettere said, putting his hands on Elef’s shoulders to try and get his point of view. “What are you looking at? Anything interesting?”

“No,” Elef replied, for once not minding the close proximity. “I feel at peace.”

“Do you? Well, that’s a first.” Elef refrained from commenting. Tettere huffed out a laugh and said, “But I’m glad. You seemed more troubled than usual lately.”

“My face is always like this.”

“Your usual resting face besides, that is.”

They looked into the waters together, pressed against one another with a childish focus on finding a deeper meaning in their reflections. Tettere could discover no hidden revelations in his own. Elef only needed the one he had already found.

“Tell me more stories, Elef.”

“If I must,” Elef sighed. He moved away from Tettere, causing the prince to stagger a bit at the loss of his support, and offered his hand. _Let this be another good memory to give the sea_. “Want to go for a swim?”

Tettere smiled, a broad grin undefiled by pretense. “Yes, let’s.”


End file.
